What matters most to you when you are using a shared bathroom, either at home, in school or in public facilities? Is it the level of privacy, the cleanliness of the facility, or the gender identity of those who have access to it, that you consider important?

With a classmate, discuss your personal experience with gender-specific and gender-neutral bathrooms, where you live. What is your comfort level, or discomfort, regarding shared bathroom facilities?

Questions for Comprehension and Analysis

1. What did President Trump do on Feb. 22? What was the Obama administration’s position on nondiscrimination laws requiring schools to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms of their choice?

2. Who was on opposite sides of the issue within the Trump administration? Why did Attorney General Jeff Sessions move quickly to roll back the civil rights expansions put into place by his Democratic predecessors?

3. What was Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s initial resistance to the directive? What changed her mind?

4. What do social conservatives say they fear if transgender people are allowed to use the bathrooms of their choice?

5. How did the state of North Carolina eliminate anti-discrimination protections for gay and transgender people last March?

6. What is Mr. Sessions’s history of opposing efforts to broaden federal protections on a range of issues under his purview, such as immigration, voting rights and gay rights?

What Do You Think?

Go back to the article and select the tab for “NYT Picks” in the comments section. Read through those comments for a variety of different viewpoints.

What are your reactions as you read the opinions of others? What did you learn from the comments that you hadn’t considered before?

Should state or federal discrimination laws protect transgender students and allow them to use the bathrooms of their choice? Why or why not?